May Day 2018: We Demand Global Solidarity Strikes

Building our collective power against patriarchy and neoliberalism through the global solidarity strikes!

In the occasion of the International Workers’ Day 2018, the year where we see workers being increasingly attacked by neoliberalism and patriarchy; where we see corporations become 69 out of the largest 100 world economies; where 82 percent of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest one percent of the global population, APWLD and its members invite feminist and peoples’ movements to revive the power of solidarity as means to confront the neoliberal system that bases its ‘growth’ on women’s labour and the weakening of the peoples’ collective power.

Solidarity strikes have been a powerful tool to bring down patriarchy, privatisation, colonialism and war. It has also advanced democratic changes, equality, labour rights, and environmental justice among others. It is time to build our momentum towards global solidarity strikes to withdraw our labour from the exploitative system and envision a world that ends the inequality between and within countries, between rich and poor and between men and women.

What is solidarity strike? What does the history of solidarity strikes tell us?

Strikes are inherently about solidarity: they are a collective action to press for a specific demand or advocate for or respond to broader policy objectives. The solidarity between strikers is a critical motivating factor. It is the act of love and also provides a measure of self-care. Strikes achieving cross-sectional solidarity show that the underlying ideals have a broader appeal.

“We need global solidarity strikes because they create powerful impacts and make our issues globally heard,” said Sangeeta Tete of Promotion and Advancement of Justice, Harmony and Rights of Adivasi (PAJHRA) from India. Solidarity strikes also show a sign of a collective effort by workers across the globe, as Mylene Cabolona of the BPO (business process outsourcing) Industry Employees Network (BIEN) in the Philippines said. “We need to show the world that neoliberal attacks do not happen only in our place. The BPO industry is the realisation of neoliberalism in the Philippines but it is a different form in another country.”